Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-06-18
WHENCE CAME UNIONS?
The Bold Barons Of Modern Times--The
Industrial Situation.
Effect Of Labor-Saving Machinery on So
Cietv.

established Dy cOQucslS ana AFTER CEN
turtles of savage struggle that dehuman-
lied the victors and brutalized their
victims. Outbreaks of the dominated
peoples reduced by it to serfdom, rebel
lions and instructions without number,
yet always hopeless, witness the grim
reluctance with which men who have
enjoyed a measure Of freedom submit
to control and authority" This sys-
tenn perfected granted to the bold
baron what the master builders now
claim the unions rob them of--''that
control n authority absolutely es-
sential to the proper conduct of their
business" Land in that age was
almost the sole source of wealth. The
bold barons in their violent way con-
petcd for possession of the land and lis
Sd )for "the prcrogatives," as the
master builders platform states it,
''that make il possible for the employer
to be successful"
Their competition eliminated when
the strongest became supreme; when
the bold barons sustained the same re-
lations TO Louis XIV. that their serfs
did to them. The daughters OF the
mobiles were honored by his embraces;
the daughters of the serfS were ut the
will of the bold barons. In his terri
tory no right was recognized but that
of the baron; in the realm no right but
that Of the king. The State, that is
Myself was the language the grand
king used to affirm that he had at last
obtained chat control and authority
absolutely essential to the proper con
/. duct of his business"
The free towns sprang out Of the
~jealousies of the ruling class. All civ
ilization dates from this era. Ciyiliza-
ton began when COO oeration in Il sort
became possible. 1t has made progress
since in every land in II direct ratio
with the proportion of the produced
wealth, its laws or customs, grant the
wealth producers. BY civilization
mean the uplifting and %ennobling OF
the masses. Increase Of wants, higher
aspirations, bcttered conditions, all IN
dicate its measure. What forbids this
we are searching for? / think | can
prove that civilization demands the eX-
t"inction of the labor union; that | have
discovered the method of ~etlecting this;
that the initiation of this method is
within the reach Of the master build
ers. is a mOmentous question. ii
appalls me. But it must be solved.
The fate of our civilization hangs upon
its solution. If | cannot frame my
thought to reach the minds of thinkers,
if ] am misunderstood and misappre-
hended, ! must pass for II fool-a
..crank." SO be it. My predecessors
those who followed straight where
their logic led them-endured more
than contempt and shame. If n man
must stand between butting rams and
Swapping wolves he must expect both
bites and c%ontusions.
X X All! bitter spite
That ever | was born to set the world Alright.
They who framed our constitution
had advantage of the longest expert
ence in self-government ever granted
man. The land was settled by those
VINO fled before the face of the bold
barons. For almost a century and a
|, half IT,. people were here in their free
town. lth the Atlantic for a wall. All
that time they were growing more lib
eral, exuding a bigotry whose venom
. had poisoned their marrows. H~uguenot.
Quaker, Puritan, and Catholic alike
found refuge here. The histories say
it was from religious persecution they
fled. But that is a superficial view;
variance in religious tenets was but the
pretext for persecution.
At first these emigrants there did
not escape the bold baron-the fellow
with a right to ''control and author
ity." but as he had no castles built and
the land was wide he could not corral
serfs, and his power waned.
The people, then in comparatively
equal conditions, learned self-govern-
ment. They won the right to it by
whipping the bold barons OF England,
and adopted "a constitution. In it they
declared they were rid of bold barons
for all time; and that the breed should
not eY herc, they forbade the law OF
primo Ikture. They declared that
thereafter they would have only equal
laws for equal men. Brave words
But what can phrases in a constitution
avail against false and unnatural prin-
cipals at the very base of the social
organizations The constitution at
tempted to guarantee to the people the
identical rights the trades unions reso-
lutely ALLURE! that they are now re-
CURED by their assent to the master
builders platform 10 admit they pos
sess, and this upder penalty OF being
denied work and wages!
At its adoption u population was